Breaking the chain of cause and effect
Let us pray (in silence) [that we may live as forgiven people]
pause
Merciful God,
grant to your faithful people pardon and peace;
that we may be cleansed from all our sins
and serve you with a quiet mind;
through Jesus Christ our Redeemer
who is alive with with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God now and for ever.
Amen
NZPB p. 577b
Philosophically, materialism is the belief that all can be reduced to physical particles and the laws of physics that govern them. Atheistic materialism, to be consistent, has no room for free will - even of the most limited kind: the free will to choose if I will raise my hand now or not. For them, the raising or lowering of my hand is determined by the movement of particles in my brain. For materialists to turn to Quantum Theory that we cannot determine both velocity and position of particles is not to make room for free will - it merely results in a theory that our hand goes up and down randomly! Christian belief in free will is a belief that cause and effect is broken by free human beings - in the image of a free God.
Forgiveness is another break in the chain of cause and effect. The bad that has happened in the past continues on into the future. Forgiveness breaks that chain reaction. Forgiveness to be effective needs to face the past ("pardon") and the future ("peace" - reconciliation).
This collect is drawn from the September masses of the Gelasian Sacramentary. From the Sarum Missal until the 1928 BCP it was the collect for Trinity 21. First translated 1549 as:
GRAUNT we beseche thee, merciful Lord, to thy faithfull people pardon and peace, that they maye bee clensed from all. their synnes, and serve thee with a quiet mynde. Through Jesus Christ our Lorde.
Following contemporary liturgical practice, "...that they may be cleansed from all their sins..." was changed to "...we..." The Latin original had "secure" where we have "quiet":
Largire, quaesumus Domine, fidelibus tuis indulgentiam placatus, et pacem: ut pariter ab omnibus mundentur offensis, et secura tibi mente deserviant.
Per Dominum...
Common Worship (CofE) has restored it to Trinity 21:
Grant, we beseech you, merciful Lord,
to your faithful people pardon and peace,
that they may be cleansed from all their sins
and serve you with a quiet mind;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.
An excellent alternative collect is provided in NZPB:
God of infinite mercy,
grant that we who know your pity
may rejoice in your forgiveness
and gladly forgive others
for the sake of Jesus Christ our Saviour
who is alive with with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God now and for ever.
Amen
NZPB p. 576b
If I was using this alternative, I would substitute "compassion" for "pity".
I cannot source this collect prior to New Zealand's first revision (1966) and would be grateful to anyone who could give me more of its history.
In 1966 it was used for the Third Sunday in Lent (where it has remained for the Two Year lectionary series into the NZPB). In 1966 it was:
God, of infinite mercy and boundless pity; forgive us our sin, so that rejoicing in our forgiveness we may forgive others, for the sake of Jesus Christ our Saviour. Amen.
In 1970 this became:
GOD, of infinite mercy and boundless pity, grant to us whom you have forgiven that, rejoicing in our forgiveness, we may forgive others, in the name of Jesus Christ our Saviour. Amen.